Industry is digesting new food-recycling law

Sunday

Jul 28, 2013 at 5:00 AM

By Alli Knothe, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

RUTLAND — At the Jordan Dairy Farm, blue mixers stick into the side of a digester, which converts food waste and cow manure into fertilizer. The machine churns the liquid sludge recipe 24-7, sort of like a 550,000-gallon KitchenAid.

The muck is a carefully crafted combination of about 25 tons of cow manure from the dairy farm,and 45 tons of food waste that is collected from food processors around the area.

Through mixing and heating, it is turned into a nutrient-rich liquid used as fertilizer for crops. The process also produces methane gas, which runs through a generator to create electricity for the facility and the dairy farm. The remaining 90 percent of the electricity produced by the process is fed into the grid and sold.

"The secret is to manage the recipe and maximize gas output," said Bill Jorgenson, founder and managing partner of AGreen Energy LLC, which is a partnership of family-run dairy farms.

The vertical digester that looks like a silo was designed, built and is monitored by quasar energy group, operated by Casella Waste Systems.

It is one of two similar digesters in the state and is just one landfill alternative that industries across Massachusetts will have to use to get rid of food waste. A state regulation under review mandates that large producers of food waste — 1 ton a week, so most restaurants don't fall under the guideline — must use other ways to dispose of their food waste. The regulation takes effect in July 2014, but many businesses that fall under the guidelines have already made the switch.

Besides the anaerobic-digestion option, businesses can also send organic waste to farms to use as animal feed or to a composter.

Earlier this month, the state announced its proposal for a commercial food waste ban to support the anaerobic digestion.

The state Department of Environmental Protection estimated 1,700 commercial entities and institutions, from grocery stores to food processing plants and convention centers, weigh in above the limit.

"A lot of the food waste is generated by a small percentage of the institutions," said DEP Commissioner Kenneth L. Kimmell. "We wanted to start out with larger institutions that would be able to (adjust) relatively easy."

He said it would be another step in the state's goal of cutting its waste stream by 30 percent by 2020.

"It's really part of an overall integrated strategy," he said. As preparation for this decision, which has been in the works for several years, the state has clarified jurisdiction and streamlined the permit process to encourage businesses to make the change.

Mr. Kimmell pointed to supermarkets, more than half of which are already diverting their food waste.

Brian Houghton, vice president of the Massachusetts Food Association, a nonprofit trade association for the supermarket and grocery industry, said they signed a memorandum of understanding with the DEP in 200. Ssince then, more than 300 grocery stores in the state voluntarily diverted food waste, cardboard and shrink wrap to these alternative disposal methods.

It was a no-brainer, he said, because the cost of sending those materials to a farm, digester, or composter — especially the heavy food waste — is less expensive than the rising cost of sending it to a landfill.

As the market for this type of waste disposal expands, Mr. Houghton said, their association predicts costs will fall even more.

"There will be (a larger) supply of organic waste, and that will create more opportunities for businesses to flourish," he said, adding that with more disposal facilities, it will likely become easier for companies to use those methods.

The digester in Rutland, for example, will install a larger engine to double the electricity output of the facility, AGreen Energy's Mr. Jorgenson said.

He said the liquid food waste brought in every day comes from such companies as Charlestown dairy company HP Hood, Ayer condiments-maker Cains Foods, Cabot Creamery in Vermont, and Chelsea meat-producer Kayem Foods.

Because of the announcement, Mr. Jorgenson said, AGreen Energy plans to build another digester on Barstow's Longview Farms in Hadley.

They will be taking advantage of some of the $4 million in grants and low-interest loans being offered by the state to help build up the industry before the big switch in July 2014.

"If it had not been for the programs, we would not be able to complete our financing package," he said. The company will also test a process in September that would convert solid waste to liquid at the store, before it sent away, to eventually be processed in the digesters.

NEO Energy of Portsmouth, N.H., is also expanding its operations into Massachusetts with agreements to build plants in Fall River and Millbury.

Tony Callendrello, chief operating officer for the company, said they are already meeting with large supermarket chains to start taking in their waste.

"Rather than sticking that in a hole in the ground, you're capturing that nutrient value," while also preventing the release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere that comes as food rots in a landfill, he said.

He pointed out that anaerobic digestion may be growing in popularity in the United States, but is well established in Europe.

In Worcester County, Worcester State and Clark universities, Assumption College, Hilton Garden Inn in Devens and the Gardner Ale House are a few examples the DEP gave as already using the alternative methods.

Wegmans supermarket in Northboro started composting its food waste about three months after opening the store in October 2011. Sustainability manager Jason Wadsworth said the Northboro store, which is the largest supermarket in New England, donates some food to local food banks as it approaches the expiration date, and the rest is collected by WeCare Environmental. The company transports about 13 tons of the supermarket's waste to its digester-composter plant in Marlboro and removes the organic material for composting, said Phil McCarthy, manager of the site.

Mr. Wadsworth said the "convenience factor" made it an easy decision to use the service, as the store works to reduce waste as much as possible.

He said that while the company is looking into the option of anaerobic digestion, it is weary of such a "heavily incentivized" system.

For Wegmans, he said, the composting option is "pretty neutral" cost-wise.

"There are not really any downsides to sending food waste to composting," he said. "It's just another tool in your belt. To make good-tasting organic produce, you need good compost."

"There's a lot of benefits from keeping that stuff out of the trash," he said.

Melissa Lucas, sustainability and energy manager for University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, who also represents UMass Memorial Health Care, said the medical school has been handing its food over to a farmer in Holden for a few years. She said the school does not exchange money with the farmer, who picks up the separated waste each week and uses it to feed his pigs.

But with this statewide regulation looming and a "Growing Green" program in place at the university, the food waste efforts will be expanded to include five hospitals by next summer, Ms. Lucas said. That expansion may include anaerobic digestion and composting.

While one hurdle will be training and updating internal procedures, she expects the change in price to remove the waste will be comparable — or even cheaper — than the cost of sending it to a landfill.

Initially, the state ban will affect large food producers, Mr. Kimmell said, but he expects the threshold of one ton will be lowered over the years to include small businesses and maybe some day even households.

"It is going to be a change of behavior for people who aren't used to it," he said. "We're trying to jump-start a whole transformation here."

Contact Alli Knothe at aknothe@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @KnotheA

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